What is a Subluxation?

Simple

A vertebral subluxation, or subluxation, occurs when a vertebra moves inappropriately placing pressure on a spinal nerve. This pressure often leads to pain and irritation. If you look at the picture the spinal nerves are the ones coming from between the bones. The pressure applied to the nerves can often cause irritation which can cause those nerves to function improperly. This in turn interferes with the signals travelling over those nerves.

How are you effected by this? The nervous system is the master control center for the entire body. It is the job of the central nervous system to provide controls and coordinates of all body functions When the nervous system is interfered with parts of your body will not get the proper messages and will not be able to function at one hundred percent of their innate or natural abilities. In other words, some part of your body will not be working properly.
The chiropractor has the responsibility to locate subluxations and reduce or correct them. This is done through a series treatments centered around the chiropractic adjustment. Chiropractic adjustments are specifically designed to correct the vertebral subluxations in your spine and chiropractors are the only professionals who are specifically trained and have the expertise to correct vertebral subluxations. Chiropractors undergo years of training to be able to provide this service.

Detailed

Subluxations are real and well documented on both x-ray and clinical findings. The subluxation is a combination of changes, both structural and neurological, occurring at the same time due to pressure on the nerve and surrounding structures. These changes occur both in your spine and throughout your body. This condition is often referred to as the Vertebral Subluxation Complex or VSC for short, by most chiropractors. This is due to the complexity of the condition and the number of systems which may be affected. In the Vertebral Subluxation Complex, various things are happening inside your body simultaneously. These various changes are all part of the vertebral subluxation complex. Most chiropractors refer to five categories in the Vertebral Subluxation Complex.

The five Types are:

• The osseous component: This is the bony component and is where the vertebrae are malposition, not moving correctly, or are undergoing physical changes due to physical pressures and referred to as degeneration. The osseous component is the bone, and this component is sometimes known as kinesiopathology.

• The nerve component: Research shows that only minor pressure on spinal nerves can have a profound and lifelong impact on the function of that nerve and nervous system. This component is referred to as neuropathology.

• The Muscle Component: Muscles are what moves the system. The muscles move the vertebrae and since nerves control the muscles themselves, muscles are an integral part of any Vertebral Subluxation Complex. In fact, muscles both affects, and are affected by the Vertebral Subluxation Complex. This component is known as myopathology.

• The Soft Tissue Component: This includes ligaments and tendons, and this is what holds it all together.  When you have misaligned vertebrae which puts pressure on nerves this resulting in changes in the surrounding soft tissues. This means the tendons, ligaments, blood supply, and other tissues undergo physical changes. These changes can occur at the point of the Vertebral Subluxation Complex or far away at some end point of the affected nerves such as in a hand, foot, leg, stomach, or any other organ or extremity. This component is also referred to as histopathology.

• The Chemical Component: This is less well-known and occurs when all these components of the Vertebral Subluxation Complex are acting together on your body, and therefore chemical changes. The chemical changes can be minimal or systemic depending on what parts of your body is affected by the subluxations. These are referred to as biochemical abnormalities.

The dangers of subluxations have been the focus of chiropractor for over 100 years. It is just recently with the invention and use of MRI and modern scientific techniques that there is more scientific evidence showing the dangers of subluxations and the health benefits of correcting them. It is just now that scientific techniques are able to demonstrate the small but important changes that chiropractors have intuitively known about for over 100 years. True health is the body’s ability to adapt, and the body can only fully adapt in the presents of a fully functioning nervous system., it is vital that your nervous system be fully functioning and free of interference from subluxations. At Mahler Family Chiropractic Center, it is our goal to allow your body to return itself to the highest level of health and adaptability by correcting Vertebral Subluxation. Chiropractic is the only profession trained to detection, location, and correction of the Vertebral Subluxation.